---
title: "Life Changed Over Time"
description: "Recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about organisms that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago"
canonical: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/life-changed-over-time-mt_gTDqxYkLs9
source: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/life-changed-over-time-mt_gTDqxYkLs9.md
retrieved: 2026-10-19
---

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# Life Changed Over Time

Recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about organisms that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago

Subject: Science · Area: Dinosaurs & Paleontology · Ages 10 to 11
Page: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/life-changed-over-time-mt_gTDqxYkLs9

## Ready when they can

- State that living things have changed (evolved) over millions of years
- Describe how fossils form and what information they provide about the past
- Compare a fossil organism with a modern relative, noting similarities and differences

## Lesson: How Life Has Changed

Long ago, Earth looked different. The plants and animals alive today are not exactly like the ones that lived millions of years ago. Little by little, living things have evolved, generation after generation.

**Example.** Fossils of small dinosaurs from millions of years ago show feathers and hollow bones, just like the birds flying around today. Scientists compare these old fossils with living birds and see how one group slowly changed into the other. A fossil is the shape of a living thing from long ago, kept in rock. After an animal dies, its soft parts rot away. Its hard bones and teeth can get buried in mud. Over a very long time, minerals turn them to rock.

*(drawing: From an ancient dinosaur to a bird flying today: fossils show some steps of the change.)*

Fossils sit in rock layers, like pages stacked in a book. Where layers are still stacked in the order they formed, deeper layers are usually older, so scientists can often figure out which changes happened first.

**Recap.** Fossils record how living things have slowly changed over millions of years, connecting animals and plants today to their ancient relatives.

## Practice

24 questions on this page, each with its working shown.

## Needs first

- [Life Cycles of Organisms](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/life-cycles-of-organisms-mt_4IVWRAZoNC)
- [Fossils as Evidence](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/fossils-as-evidence-mt_6Z42wJaKYG)
- [Fossilisation: Why Sediment, Minerals and Luck All Matter](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/fossilisation-why-sediment-minerals-and-luck-all-matter-mt_iycQEai3dK)
- [Evolution vocabulary](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/evolution-vocabulary-mt_lWqmKn5Jvr)

## Opens up

- [How living things adapt to environments](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/how-living-things-adapt-to-environments-mt_LRzjbo1Fn6)